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Introduction Lead sheet has made a comeback during the last few years. Over 90,000 tonnes of lead sheet was used for roofing, cladding and flashing applications during 1987 — the highest quantity ever known to be used in a year in the UK. Flashings and weatherings account for over 75 per cent of the tonnage, the balance being used for re‐roofing old or historic buildings and roofing and cladding for new buildings.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

Facial expression recognition by human observers is affected by subjective components. Indeed there is no ground truth. We have developed Discrete Choice Models (DCM) to capture the human perception of facial expressions. In a first step, the static case is treated, that is modelling perception of facial images. Image information is extracted using a computer vision tool called Active Appearance Model (AAM). DCMs attributes are based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), Expression Descriptive Units (EDUs) and outputs of AAM. Some behavioural data have been collected using an Internet survey, where respondents are asked to label facial images from the Cohn–Kanade database with expressions. Different models were estimated by likelihood maximization using the obtained data. In a second step, the proposed static discrete choice framework is extended to the dynamic case, which considers facial video instead of images. The model theory is described and another Internet survey is currently conducted in order to obtain expressions labels on videos. In this second Internet survey, videos come from the Cohn–Kanade database and the Facial Expressions and Emotions Database (FEED).

This paper aims to introduce and illustrate how discrete choice experiments (DCEs) can be used by accounting researchers and present an agenda of accounting-related research topics that might usefully benefit from the adoption of DCEs.

Each major phase involved in conducting a DCE is illustrated using a capital budgeting case study. The research agenda is based on a review of experimental research in financial accounting, management accounting and auditing.

DCEs can overcome some of the problems associated with asking decision-makers to rank or rate alternatives. Instead, they ask decision-makers to choose an alternative from a set. DCEs arguably better reflect the realities of real-world decision-making because decision-makers need to make trade-offs between all of the alternatives relevant to a decision. An important advantage that DCEs offer is their ability to calculate willingness-to-pay estimates, which can enable the valuation of non-market goods. Several streams of experimental accounting research would appear well-suited to investigation with DCEs.

While every effort has been made to ensure that this illustration is as generic to as the many potential studies as possible, it may be that researchers seeking to utilise a DCE need to refer to additional literary sources. This study, however, should serve as a useful starting point.

Accounting researchers are expected to benefit from reading this article by being: made aware of the DCE method and its advantages; shown how to conduct a DCE; and provided with an agenda of accounting-related research topics that might usefully benefit from application of the DCE methodology.

It is the authors’ understanding that this is the first article directed to accounting academics regarding the conduct of DCEs for accounting research. It is hoped that this study can provide a useful platform for accounting academics to launch further research adopting DCEs.

Purpose: This paper presents a review of the current state and potential capabilities for application of robots, artificial intelligence and automated services (RAISA) in hotel companies.

Design/methodology/approach: A two-step approach was applied in this study. First, the authors make a theoretical overview of the robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in hotels. Second, the authors make a detailed overview of various case studies from global hotel practice.

Findings: The application of RAISA in hotel companies is examined in connection with the impact that technology has on guest experience during each of the five stages of the guest cycle: pre-arrival, arrival, stay, departure, assessment.

Research implications: Its implications can be searched with respect to future research. It deals with topics such as how different generations (guests and employees) perceive RAISA in the hotel industry and what is the attitude of guests in different categories of hotels (luxury and economy) towards the use of RAISA. It also shows what is the attitude of different types of tourists (holiday, business, health, cultural, etc.) and what kinds of robots (androids or machines) are more appropriate for different types of hotel operations.

Practical implications: The implications are related to the improvement of operations and operational management, marketing and sales, enhancement of customer experience and service innovation, training and management.

Originality/value: This book chapter complements and expands research on the role of RAISA in the hotel industry and makes some projections about the use of technologies in the future.

Innovation is a key factor in assessing organizational success. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational culture and operations strategy impact organizational innovation. It explores the influence of various combinations of organizational cultures and operations strategies on a firm’s ability to innovate both in process and product.

A conceptual model is developed which attempts to explain how the reciprocal and dynamic interactive relationship between organizational culture and operations strategy and innovation is structured. In total, 233 valid questionnaires were collected from 17 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the direction and strengths of the relationships and develop a comprehensive picture to illustrate the drivers of successful innovation.

The analysis and conclusions confirm the suitability of Culture–Strategy–Innovation Model and the detailed results demonstrate that a combination of innovative organizational culture and flexibility-oriented operations strategy has the strongest influence on a firm’s innovation process thereby improving their innovative organizational outcomes.

Although based on Taiwanese manufacturing industries these results provide useful insights for manufacturing industries in general. In alternative contexts, the combination of different dimensions of culture and strategy can be expected to cause different levels of success in innovation. This study provides robust evidence to explain the organizational climate needed to guide the innovative and flexibility considerations needed for SMEs in the manufacturing industry.

This is an empirical study which specifically investigates the activities of SMEs in the metal/plastic manufacturing industry in Taiwan and in particular examines organizational culture, operations strategies and innovation. The research model proposed and confirmed offers a new multi-dimensional structure of culture and strategy linked with their various related dynamic interrelationships and the drivers that impact organizational innovation.

Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food, stated in the House of Lords, on March 11th, that “to reduce the tonnage used for the transport of wheat” the Government had decided to increase to 85 per cent. the ratio of flour from the wheat milled in this country; and that it will be illegal to sell, except under licence, any “white” bread from April 6th. In the discussion that followed, Lord Horder stated that he and his medical colleagues were satisfied that no other step concerning the nation's food was so calculated to raise the level of the nation's nutrition. He added that there was no evidence that 85 per cent. extraction flour is indigestible; and that where bread of any kind is permissible in diseases of the digestive system, it may be given with impunity. Moreover, Sir Ernest Graham Little, M.D., has rendered a great service to the public by his oft‐repeated and strong advocacy, in the House of Commons, of better bread than that which constitutes the “white loaf.” The unanimous verdict of those who are best qualified to express an opinion supports the conclusion that adequate nutrition is the prime requirement for the physical well‐being of mankind. Neglect this and all other hygienic props fail to support us. It is deplorable, therefore, that so little has been done hitherto in the sphere of national welfare to support the findings of science in favour of the more adequate loaf which has been so powerfully advocated for years. It is no exaggeration to state that the “white loaf” has been a real impediment to an improvement in the hygienic development of the growing child; as the “national loaf” (which will be superior to the “standard bread” of the last war) will not only reduce the tonnage for the transport of wheat, but will also greatly benefit the children, more especially those of the poorer section of the community with whom bread is the main food. Although from a standpoint of nutrition the “National” loaf falls short of the desirable “Wholemeal” loaf, it certainly represents a valuable step in the right direction. As the much impoverished wheat of the “white loaf” is a matter for considerable national concern, it is an anomaly that it should be permitted, seeing that similar impoverishments of natural foodstuffs have for long been punishable by law. For instance, prosecutions and fines for the watering of milk occupy pages of most issues of The British Food Journal. Why, then, should the serious reduction of the valuable mineral matter and vitamins of the wheat used for the wheaten loaf be suffered to continue? The general public do not readily accept guidance upon what they should eat, and it is unlikely that they will have displayed a concerted predilection for the “national loaf” by the time the war ends. But by then much will have been gained by the reduction of prejudice and the increased accommodation which even short phases of custom can confer. Therefore the war‐time expedient of a “national loaf” may very usefully contribute to the perpetuity of its advantages. If we are wise, propaganda to this end will be maintained meanwhile, and be made to develop in power and authority during the early clays of peace. If the Government and the Local Health Authorities are in default in impressing, and (if need be) imposing such a major interest to the nation, the passing of the “white loaf” will soon be followed by its return. Especially is it to be hoped that the Ministry of Health will then give greater support to the advocacy of a better loaf than hitherto. The British Food Journal has often given expression to the public need for an improved loaf, and if this is destined to become an accomplished fact it will partake of the nature of a crowning event to our modest efforts.

Despite the now well developed use of sponsorship linked marketing, there have been few methodological advances in the measurement of sponsorship constructs and outcomes. This paper offers a preliminary development of an activity index for use in the sponsorship marketing context. The activity index seeks to capture the consumer's extended experience with sport (rugby) and considers the relationship of this overall experience to sponsorship-related outcomes of interest. Initial development of the index, based on a convenience sample of 108 people visiting a sports centre, shows promise.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.